ANTMAT, LIFE IN THE FIRING LINE.
[To THY ED1TOZ ON ass ..SPELT.LT08.”] Sin,—I have just read a letter in your issue of June 5th about animal life in the firing line. The following facts may be of interest. When I was at Givenchy in January and at the end of December there were quite a number of pariah dogs about. They had to be shot for fear of their betraying our presence by barking. One evening when we were in the firing trenches two hundred yards from the Germans a cat came over into our trench from the houses in the rear. I tried to get her to come down into the trench, but instead she leapt across on to the parapet and vanished on to the no-man's-land beyond. The Germans had just stopped their evening fusillade—a very terrific one that day. I never saw the poor thing again, but we did not go into that particular section next time. On another occasion I was looking for straw to make myself a bed, and went up to the first floor of a farmhouse. On an old bedstead I found some that had been overlooked by our men in which a cat had made a little round nest. She was frightened at first, but became quite friendly, and I felt really sorry to deprive her of her bed—as sorry as the Car- penter on a well-known occasion. This was not more than a hundred and fifty yards from the firing trenches. All the cats and dogs in this village had a dazed, hunted look, as well they might! They were not hungry, and refused food when offered to them. There are uo birds near the trenches except a few pigeons, which are not encouraged. The desola-
tion of death is supreme.—I am, Sir, &c., VIATOS.
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